Mission Delhi – Julie, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
One of the one percent in 13 million.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
She looks like a starving Buddha, so thin that her bones are showing. One evening The Delhi Walla meets Julie, a dog, in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. Famed for its Sufi shrine, this urban village happens to have a great number of meat shops. The area’s dogs prowl around for scraps of food.
But Julie has self-exiled herself on the village’s border. She is watching the traffic on Lodhi Road though seems to be in extreme discomfort. She tries to sit, but fails. She tries to walk, but looks as if she is in great pain.
“Julie baby was fine until a week ago,” says a roadside vendor of peanuts. “She used to run after birds,” says an ice-cream seller. A beggar, who too seems to know the brown dog, says, “Somebody has done black magic on her.”
Julie walks a few steps with seemingly great difficulty but stops. She looks down at her paws. It is impossible to guess what is going on in her mind. She tries to move back but is unable to do so. She looks down at the ground and remains still for several minutes.
“We give her food and water but she hardly eats anything,” says the peanut man. “I don’t know how she ended up like this. May be she had a fight with a dog or a cat and was injured.”
The street vendors say that Julie appeared in the Basti a few years ago when she was still a puppy. Nobody could tell just how she came to be known by her present name.
The peanut man adds, “Julie used to be very active. She was always hanging around the kebab stalls.”
A few minutes later Julie accidentally slips down the pavement. Lying slumped on the roadside, she remains as still as a statue in her new position.
As the evening ends and it gets darker, Julie becomes invisible.
[This is the 102nd portrait of Mission Delhi project]
Life hurts
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[…] here for Julie, the 102nd […]
She has lovely eyes. Can’t a doctor from People for Animals see her? I can’t spot any injuries, so it may be an internal disease.
She was eventually sent to a clinic.
I wished you or someone else called Help .. its great that you wrote the article cause i too am reading it at Friendicoe’s post right now so word is being spread to slot her n help.
All i am saying it if you had a number handy to call Friendicoes or any vet at that very moment and would have extended help to transport her to a clinic or Friendicoes it would have helped her more.
Friendicoes Numbers
01124314787
01124320707
I urge all my friends n relatives to keep local numbers od organisations that help stray animals as one call can save them. One may not be able to extend a lot of time n help or doesnt know how to handle an unknown stray animal…a cat or a dog or a cow or hirse and donkey or a bird….but atleast a call can be made describing the problem and location.
Uodate – people checked on her after post got published on Friendicoes page. The vendors there said she is no more.
When did you see her exactly?